this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
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There's no organizing potential in the USA at all. Everyone only thinks social democrats are the most radical option. Reddit third-worldists call me evil for being born here. I'm scum for being born in this country. I know it at this point, I'm evil for benefitting from imperialism, we're all labor aristocrats, so why bother? I don't even feel the strength to get out of bed anymore. I just want to lay here until I die or until I get evicted and die on the streets. I'm to scared to kill myself, so may as well. I'm just so tired of everything, of seeing the rights of my closest friends being peeled away and there being no viable way to stop it because, again, everyone here only thinks voting is the way out.

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[–] big_spoon@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

There’s no organizing potential in the USA at all

three years ago nobody thought that hating zionism would be as mainstream as now, or someone like luigi being considered some kind of hero even if there's some adventurism around him

Everyone only thinks social democrats are the most radical option

who are everyone? people in the internet?

Reddit third-worldists call me evil for being born here

you should ignore the hivemind filled with FBI bots for you own good

I’m evil for benefitting from imperialism

you should stop being so hard on yourself, nobody is inmune to propaganda

I’m just so tired of everything

that's what they reactionaries want

[–] TheRedWedge@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Reddit third-worldists call me evil for being born here. I’m scum for being born in this country. I know it at this point, I’m evil for benefitting from imperialism, we’re all labor aristocrats, so why bother?

It's me, I'm the third worldists. I feel like the American left still has some vestigial ideas of sin and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps that you absorbed through your lifetime. You see the concept of labor aristocracy and equate it to some sort of personal moral failure instead of a way to understand class relations under imperialism. You get told that revolutionary potential in the imperial core is low and you can't simply take control of history to conjure up revolutionary conditions out of thin air and deliver a McRevolution to your doorstep in 30 minutes or money back and think it's nihilism and defeatism and communism is impossible.

While I personally believe that a revolution in the imperial core is a long way off and that the US proletariat are labor aristocrats whose interests align with maintaining imperialism, I have never blamed you for your conditions because that would be unserious. Nor have I put up unrealistic expectations on you to scrounge up revolutionary conditions out of nowhere and destroy the Great Satan before the next warcrime festival occurs and blame you when that inevitably fails. I get really pissed at obvious displays of chauvinism but that's a normal reaction of a person with self-respect who is dehumanized by that chauvinism. And sometimes the shit American leftists, MLs even, say makes me give some credence to the Yakubian Devil memes and I fully understand why Global South leftists give up on this place to preserve their mental health.

Recognizing that it is hard or that you are objectively limited by complex factors outside of your control is not doomerism or a call to surrender. The point is to keep fighting. To bet your life on it even if you might not live to see the revolution. To understand your capabilities and not feel uncomfortable with your limits because that is how you become tempted to make mistakes. To keep learning and become a better communist so you can make more out of future opportunities. To see yourself as a citizen of the world and cheer for every victory no matter how far away because it brings us all closer to our goal. Revolution is hard. The road to communism is long and bloody and many times lonely and frustrating. If it was easier the world would be much different.

[–] Shurikash@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 11 minutes ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago)

But seeing as I benefit from the blood of children being spilled, why should I want to do anything other than set myself on fire?

and think it's nihilism and defeatism and communism is impossible.

While I personally believe that a revolution in the imperial core is a long way off

if i'm going to suffer through the rest of my natural life and die unliberated it's no different than being impossible. imperial decline makes me smile but i have no positive reasons to wake up in the morning

[–] Commiejones@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

There’s no organizing potential in the USA at all.

So you agitate. When there are enough Class Conscious individuals in usa the party will begin to crystalize, no point in trying to force it when the conditions aren't correct.

Reddit

Reddit is a cesspit just don't go there. It is built to break you. Get off reddit. Anybody who espouses actual Marxist Leninism on reddit gets banned. The only way to be a real communist on reddit is to keep it on the DL and be very measured and careful in your wording. These accounts who proudly proclaim to be marxists on reddit are allowed to exist because they spread false consciousness.

third-worldists call me evil for being born here. I’m scum for being born in this country. I know it at this point, I’m evil for benefitting from imperialism, we’re all labor aristocrats

That is a CIA psy-op just ignore people who say that shit. The 3rd worldists on reddit are mostly petty bougies or white collar, the labor aristocrats of their own nation. They are blaming the american left for the capitalists exploiting their countries while doing nothing themselves to throw off their own bourgeoise who exploit them with neo-colonialism for their own benefit. They are every bit as useless as the americans waiting for China or Iran to save them.

[–] michifmischief@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 hours ago

I got banned from a subreddit for telling someone to investigate their beliefs even if they are sure they are true. Not to disprove them, but to strengthen their beliefs. To be fair, DPRK was mentioned. I was really pushing it telling someone to investigate history.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 15 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

The US has internal colonization too, it doesn't just imperialize the rest of the world and then redistribute the superprofits equally to its labor aristocracy. A worker that owns no land, has no investments, and can't save for retirement is certainly no aristocrat.

But you'll notice once someone gets a house, starts investing, and starts bringing in high enough wages to save for retirement their revolutionary potential withers. They become invested in property values, market performance, and in their firm's success.

[–] GreatSquare@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Reddit third-worldists call me evil for being born here. I’m scum for being born in this country. I know it at this point, I’m evil for benefitting from imperialism, we’re all labor aristocrats, so why bother?

I don't think you are called evil by third worldists but your class interests don't align with the working class from the third world. You do benefit somewhat from US imperialism.

Now that your rights and standards of living are being eroded, it should be motivation to organise against some of that erosion.

[–] amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 8 hours ago

your class interests don’t align with the working class from the third world. You do benefit somewhat from US imperialism.

This can be the case somewhat depending on where you fall in the caste of the US, but it is not a simple, identical thing across the board.

[–] Cowbee@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 12 hours ago

Revolution is possible, and it's the duty of those of us in the imperial core to kill imperialism from the inside. It's as simple as that. There are decent orgs in the empire, none are perfect but we can still contribute to a better world. Revolutionary optimism is a necessary mode of thought.

[–] amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I’m scum for being born in this country

No, you aren't, that's imperialist thinking pointed inward. Now if you were to go sign up for the US military and work on technology for bombing people in other countries, that would be scummy. But where you are born is something you have no control over and thus cannot possibly be your responsibility.

Reddit third-worldists call me evil for being born here.

Try not to take it personally when people do this kind of thing. Anyone actually literally saying that is misguided to begin with, but it is probably coming from a place of hatred for the empire and what it does, rather than a preoccupied hatred of every single individual living in the regions it controls.

we’re all labor aristocrats

I think that is an oversimplified analysis. Is a homeless person a labor aristocrat just because they're homeless in the US? I don't think so. The labor aristocracy analysis can be useful for tracking the connection between imperial spoils and imperial worker seeing some benefits from it, and how that changes the way they think about class struggle and international solidarity. But it loses precision of meaning if it is applied as a blanket categorization to everyone living in the imperial core, which defeats the point of it being a tool for being more precise in doing class/caste analysis.

everyone here only thinks voting is the way out.

Not everyone, but certainly there is a lot of it. This is likely to keep shifting as people do what they can to educate and as conditions worsen, with the electoral system providing no real relief.

[–] Shurikash@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Is a homeless person a labor aristocrat just because they’re homeless in the US

People unironically think that though! It really tempts me into digging the razor in deeper than I normally do.

[–] Saymaz@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 45 minutes ago* (last edited 45 minutes ago)

Only ACP chuds unironically think that.

[–] amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 10 hours ago

People think (or at least, act like they think) all kinds of shit, especially online. You'll end up in a bad way if you wrap your mental health up in seeking the approval of online "leftists" who say whatever shit enters their mind like it's gospel truth. Look for people who are doing detailed analysis and doing revolutionary political work, not just people who are opinionated and especially not just people who are hateful. Hating the baddies isn't an ideology in itself. And applying collective punishment style blame logic onto imperial core regions is, like I said, turning imperial logic inward, not being a communist. Now does this mean that any time somebody vent posts about wanting missiles to rain down on israel for its obscene actions, that they are failing to be a communist, no. But it does mean that if somebody were to do a serious argument that every person living in israel deserves to die and should be glassed by nukes because of what israel has done and is doing, that would not be a communist analysis. The same applies to the US. So it's important not to confuse impassioned desires said in the heat of a moment with serious strategic military analysis backed by a dialectical materialist understanding of change and contradictions, as well as backed by a humane, communal worldview.

In the heat of the moment, it can be unpopular to acknowledge this side of things and risk sounding like sympathy for monsters, but it does matter. It is imperialism and colonialism that persistently has a policy of collective blame and mass murder as the answer to those who get in its crosshairs (usually just by existing and not being a slave to it). It is not the purpose or goal of communism to continue this policy and apply it to the imperial core instead. It is our job to ensure that it stops and that the instruments of it are so smashed and its supporters so reeducated or removed, that it can never happen again; or in more scientific language, it is our job to resolve the contradictions that produce and reproduce this kind of barbaric behavior and system, so that it will cease to be and we can begin to live in a world where civilian life is actually protected and human life more generally is valued, instead of so routinely dehumanized for the sake of domination and exploitation.

More simply said, I always go back to how places like China talk about these things. Do they say, "Our enemy is everyone living in these regions and we aim to annihilate them all"? No. If they acknowledge it, they tend to do it insofar as recognizing at least one level of class distinction, as the ruling classes and the people below that. Strategically, no matter how they feel about average people in the imperial core, it is far more effective to speak in a way that emphasizes their beef is not with every single person living there, rather than hardening regular people against them, or sending the more conscientious ones spiraling into self-flagellating despair.

[–] ChristchurchAsshole@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 hours ago

Don't give up yet. I've searched for the past 17 years to find people who're pissed off about certain issues and I'm still struggling to find people in 2026. Things have changed though, I'm sure of it. Most of Gen Z understand that the current system is broken. Just keep chipping away at the political system until it dies.

[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Defeatism is reactionary, comrade. If we believe our struggles don't matter they will never be resolved. If we believe we cannot win we will never try. No matter how hopeless everything may seem we have to believe that we can win because we objectively can. We are the majority. We are the cogs that keep the machine running and we can grind it to a halt if we so choose. We can do this and if pushed far enough we will do this.

The rise of social democracy shouldn't be seen as defeat; the failures of social democrat will drive further radicalizing. It already has. I was a social democrat myself once, as were many other comrades. Even Americans have their breaking point and we're on a fast track to it because social democrats can't beat fascists. Tides are turning if it doesn't seem like it.

Ignore Third Worldists. Workers everywhere are oppressed and we all deserve liberation. No one deserves to die on the streets. No one deserves to starve. That is the enemy's language.

We're still in Gramsci's Time of Monsters, but time moves forward. Always. And so must we.

[–] Shurikash@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

The rise of social democracy shouldn’t be seen as defeat; the failures of social democrat will drive further radicalizing. It already has.

Is it? Because I'm seeing the opposite. People were gungho for Platner until credible allegations of him raping an American came out. He could have raped Iraqis or Afghans, but because it was an American this time, now it's an issue. We only care about ourselves.

[–] TacticalSanta@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

I'm in the US as well. Even if its tiny, the small push-backs you make towards platner, even if the average american lib never understands what it means to be anti-imperialist, chips away at the hegemony of ideology bit by bit. You already have moronic reddit libs who aren't nearly as sinophobic as they once were just 5 years ago. People sucked off Elon musk not long ago too. Even if there is an absolute limit to where the American left/liberals can reach, agitating is still better than not, being alive doing as much as you can (don't get tripped up on the idea that since you are in the imperial core its all or nothing) still chips away at the hegemony of political thought. Remember you probably landed in this space because of things you read that sounded ridiculous at the time now resonate with you. Keep doing what you know is true.

[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 11 hours ago

It's unfortunate that so many people fell for Platner. It's unfortunate that people thought Platner was acceptable or were willing to put their faith behind him despite suspicions. But it's important not to get hung up on what has happened. The people who stood by him should be confronted, and if they have integrity they will admit their failure and learn from it. And that's thing: many already have. Leftists were calling out Platner from the beginning and we were proven right. Even our enemies can't ignore that and that alone gets people to listen. Many people fell for Fetterman too, and many of those that did didn't make the same mistake with Platner. Many people fell for AOC, and many of them aren't falling for Abughazaleh. Many people fell for Bernie, and many of those aren't falling for Mamdani. I am one of them.

The struggle is constant. We didn't suddenly win every heart and mind right away; we don't immediately destroy ignorance or hate or apathy the minute our theory meets contact with the enemy. We have to work for it. Many of us are. A tsunami doesn't just emerge out of nowhere - it starts with a single wave. It takes time and effort to make a revolution and we're well on our way there even if it doesn't seem like it. We are a lot closer than it may seem. Socialism and communism have never been more popular in America than right now. Things are changing.